A chronicle of ownership of NB Percy and life in general. For the boater and the gongoozler alike.

Friday, 27 May 2016

Mobile internet - interesting options

Since 3 decided to phase out their 'All you can eat data' package, and in doing so offered me a less attractive option for twice the price I have been with EE.

The benefit of EE was a 4g signal on my mooring with a 15gb allowance for £20 a month. I have to say their service has been very reliable and fast. However you can soon eat through 15gb especially if you stream football and Skype a lot - I do both. A few month I have had no option other than to buy more data.

Anyhow Rachel got the same letter from 3 the other week giving her the good news they are phasing out her data contract and offering something much more expensive. So we visited the 3 shop in Chichester where a veery nice young lad helped us through the options and by looking at the last three months use of the phone it was obvious we could opt for a lower minutes and data plan that was cheaper and also Rachel got a new Iphone 5s - she did not want the larger 6s.

In offering the options he did offer a sim only plan that was attractive but Rachel needs a phone so the option for getting something newer won out. In signing up he advised she could get a decent discount if she referred any family... so I then got interested in the max data 3 sim only plan.

We had talked about the 'all you can eat data plan' and why 3 had withdrawn it (over use and large demand) and he advised 3 did have a 30gb plan - all tethered use (the last 3 plan offered only had a 4gb limit on tethered data - for those not aware tethering is using your phone as a wifi hotspot and connecting Ipads and laptops to it - as I am not typing this via my macbook) He said bizarrely 3 were not openly publicising this ... I can only suspect it is while they are beefing up their infrastructure? Anyhow we checked the Swan at Fradleys postcode and got the coverage map up and 4g was on my mooring so for £18 a month I now get 30gb of data - all tethered. So 2 quid cheaper and double the allowance. I also get a second phone on a second network. The extra result is Rachel's old phone was a 5s that did do 4g so I have 3 4g on my mooring..... the real real bonus is the speeds - from the speed checker below.

nearly 40mb/ second that is as good as the virgin cable at home - the ping is no good for gaming but I expect the streaming and other stuff I do will be well handled by the connection here.

The final win was Rachel asked about her old Iphone 4 that we had forgot about - the fella advised going on recycling comparison sites and we got £17 quid for that so the first month on 3 was nearly free !

Might be worth checking if you have a old 4g phone the 3 sim only plan that gives the 30gb of data.... I'll let you know how I get on !